With some big-time celebrities using Twitter the distance between them and their fans is getting smaller and smaller, some by request. While THE_REAL_SHAQ was in a diner last week, he sensed that he had some Twitter followers in the area and invited them over to his table.

The two guys had been following Shaq’s tweets and realized they were close by, so they decided to go and check to see if it was really the multi-million dollar basketball player running his Twitter account. Upon entering the diner they became starstruck and were afraid to stop by his table until Shaq all but dared them to. After saying hi and snapping a couple quick pictures, Shaq called them out for being afraid to approach him.

While Twitter can be a great tool for communicating with people via text, I think this is an example of its even better use, finding people in the real world and connecting with them. Imagine being stuck in the airport because your flight has been delayed or canceled (a very realistic scenario) and being able to form a connection with someone else on that flight via Twitter. While you may be sitting in the same area as them, there is something cool and unique about connecting with them on Twitter first, because following that flight you can still ‘follow’ what that person is up to.